


universalism

by Eteri



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: AH YES, Christmas Cookies, Christmas Fluff, Day 3 is bittersweet, Festivals, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Ghost TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Ghosts, Grocery Store, Hot Chocolate, Kissing, MCYT Advent Calendar Prompts (Video Blogging RPF), Memory Loss, Movie Night, Platonic Relationships, Snow, Snowball Fight, They/Them Pronouns for Eret (Video Blogging RPF), Winter, Wreath making, but i enjoy writing them so..., day 1:, day 2:, day 3:, day 4:, happens all the time, hey ao3 can you stop snapping my tags, i find it funny that wilbur's tag doesn't have video blogging rpf attached to it, i'm so gonna procrastinate over this, it's like AO3 expects you to know who he is, some of these probably will be late, tbh i don't really know what to tag in day 4, why do you do this, wreath making and than kissing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:14:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27884344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eteri/pseuds/Eteri
Summary: winter, christmas, and everything in betweenOR:i take a shot at writing for amooniesong's MCYT Advent Calendar Prompt List.i don't think any of these oneshots will be connected unless i said so.usually i write fluff, but every once in a while i write angst.
Relationships: <-- kind of - Relationship, Charles | Grian/Tango Tek, Eret & Floris | Fundy, Eret & Niki | Nihachu, Floris | Fundy & Niki | Nihachu, Floris | Fundy & TommyInnit, ONLY FOR DAY 4, Sam | Awesamdude & TommyInnit, don't do it - Relationship, like - Relationship, shipping minors is weird, the only romances i accept is tangrian and fundywastaken
Kudos: 23
Collections: MCYT Advent Calendar Prompts 2020





	1. Midding

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: If the content in this book is deemed uncomfortable or crossing boundaries for the content creators personas involved, it will immediately get taken down as soon as I'm informed.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> midding  
> v. intr. feeling the tranquil pleasure of being near a gathering but not quite in it—hovering on the perimeter of a campfire, chatting outside a party while others dance inside, resting your head in the backseat of a car listening to your friends chatting up front—feeling blissfully invisible yet still fully included, safe in the knowledge that everyone is together and everyone is okay, with all the thrill of being there without the burden of having to be.

Eret shivered, rubbing their hands to keep warm. Why had they even waited outside? Though the lights were pretty, they didn’t make up for any warmth, not like the inside of the shop behind them was.

Niki and Fundy were near the front of the line, the last time they checked, so they could just wait a few more minutes. 

Eret glanced around, hoping for something to distract themselves for a while, until they could have a nice cup of hot chocolate in front of them. A family of five were trying to take a picture in front of the brightly lit Christmas tree, occasionally shoving each other, which would not make it go any faster.

People were lazily moving around, pointing out the dazzling lights, making idle conversation. A few people have gathered into a crowd, oohing at something that Eret couldn’t see. Some people clap, a woman’s voice echoing across the alley.

“For our next performance, we will need a volunteer.” The woman asked, a ferocious noise of people volunteering immediately following. 

Eret’s glad that they are just hiding out of the performer’s eyesight, they haven’t been one for volunteering, and if someone’s accidentally overheard conversation was correct, they were the fire jugglers. 

Someone tapped their shoulder, and they turn back, being greeted by the same family they had seen taking a photo at the Christmas tree. 

“uh, your kind of in the way, mate.” The man said, gesturing towards the doorway.

Eret stepped aside, allowing them through. “Sorry about that.”

“Are you looking for someone?” The man inquired.

“Nah, I’m waiting for them out here,” Eret said, scanning the inside. “Oh! Yeah, there they are.” 

Fundy was holding a cup, while Niki carried the two others, holding a paper bag in the other. Niki passed Eret one cup in her hands, and they gratefully accepted it, the cup warming their hands.

Eret smiled at her, before turning to the man, but found that they were long gone, already inside the store. 

“What should we do next?” Niki asked, scanning over the alley.

“There’s a crowd of people over there. We could watch the performers for a little before walking around.” Eret suggested, enjoying the warmth radiating from the cup. 

“Oh! That could be fun!” Niki decided, nodding her head. 

Fundy shrugged. “Might as well.” 

Niki started walking ahead of them, and Fundy fell in beside Eret. 

“Who was that, anyway?” Fundy inquired, turning to look at them. 

“Oh. That was just a stranger.” Eret said, daring a sip of hot chocolate. The hot chocolate burns its way down their throat, and they shivered. “My tongue’s definitely burnt now.”

Fundy snorted.

“What’s in the bag?” Eret questioned, eyeing the bag in interest.

“Just a donut we’ll share.” Fundy responded, before cautiously taking a sip of his hot chocolate. Even with the small sip, Fundy spluttered, Eret giggling.

“Karma.” They joked, Fundy sending Eret a half hearted glare.

The festival is pretty fun, afterwards. They had watched the performers for a bit before Fundy groaned about how he felt like his feet were going to fall off if they stayed still for another minute. 

After the trio walked around for an hour, taking pictures with Niki’s phone as Fundy’s died long ago and Eret forgot theirs in the car. 

Halfway through, Fundy split the donut into thirds, and Eret dunked their part in their now lukewarm hot chocolate. Eret finished it last, forcing the three of them to stop so they could throw it out.

Fundy complained it was a waste of time.

They all agree to turn back to the car, the cold weighing on the three. Somehow, getting back to the car was trickier than getting to the festival — they had gotten lost three times on the way there, with Fundy checking the GPS — and when they had, the snow picked up, soaking them to the bone.

“I can drive again,” Niki suggested, swiping her damp hair out of her eyes. It had snowed halfway through the festival, giving the festival more of a Winter in Wonderland theme than it had before.

“I claim front seat!” Fundy yelled, beating Eret by half a second. Eret sighed, accepting the fate of the backseat.

It’s there they started dozing off, listening to the quiet talk of their friends up in the front seats. It was one of the best Winter Festivals they had taken part in. 

Eret wouldn’t have had it any other way.


	2. Beschaulich

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it was supposed to be a short shopping trip.
> 
> _it was supposed to be a short shopping trip. ___
> 
> _  
> _OR:_  
>  _
> 
> _  
> _Sam and Tommy get lost in a grocery store while looking for candy canes._  
>  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 2: Candy Canes
> 
> Two notes before you get started:  
> \- Sam and Tommy are siblings in this, don't ask why, my brain just kinda went: ha ha, let's do it.  
> \- Sam uses he/they pronouns. (for the same reason as above)
> 
> also today is a double update day because i lost a bet around MCC.

“What are we looking for again?” Tommy asked, attempting to peek over Sam’s shoulder.

“Um, we’re going to get some candy canes.” Sam responded, clutching the list in his free hand, the other on the shopping cart.

“Candy canes? They look disgusting.” Tommy commented, scanning the isles.

“You don’t like candy canes?” Sam looked over their shoulder, watching Tommy. Tommy picked a box of candy off the shelves, examining at it before putting it back on the shelf. 

“Not really. I think they could make great weapons, though.”

“Oh. Well, now that we’re here, do you know what type of chocolate Niki would want for the cookies?” Sam asked, picking one of the chocolate bars off the shelves. Milk chocolate. They’d rather save that for when it was just them and Tommy. 

“I don’t think she’d care. I could text her but she might be to busy baking.” Tommy answered.

“I guess we’ll get the good chocolate than.” Sam decided, reaching to get a red wrapped bar of chocolate.

“Not that one! The cookies ended up horribly with that one.” Tommy interrupted, scanning the shelves until his eyes fell on a purple chocolate bar. “Yeah, this one’s good.” 

Tommy grabbed two of the bars, tossing them into the cart. 

“So we’re all good now?” Tommy asked hopefully.

“No. We’re still getting the candy canes. I’m pretty sure they’re still up somewhere in this aisle.” Sam responded, stopping the cart to wait for two frantic customers trying to squeeze their shopping carts into a narrow opening; as another person who paralleled parked their shopping cart searched the pudding shelves.

“Ugh. I just want to be free of this grocery store.” Tommy groaned, clutching on to the side of the shopping cart. 

“We haven’t even been here that long!” Sam protested, moving the cart a bit closer towards the traffic jam. “It’s only been, like, forty-five minutes.”

“That’s so long though!” Tommy complained, frowning as another customer pushed past him. 

Sam shrugged, steering the shopping cart around towards the left, evening out more. 

Tommy eventually groaned and helped search the shelves for candy canes, veering off when the two of them thought they saw something that looked anything close to a candy cane. They reached the end of the aisle, dispirited.

“Maybe the next aisle.” Sam suggested, exiting the aisle. 

“I dunno. Usually they don’t have two candy aisles. Or at least _this_ store doesn’t.” Tommy mumbled, following Sam.

  
  
  


Turned out, it didn’t. 

Sam finally groaned, resting his forehead on a refrigerator door in Aisle 6. Tommy was somewhere in Aisle 4, if their memory served them right. He had stopped complaining about his feet being sore, and Sam had left him there. 

“Um, sir, how may I help you?” Someone asked from behind them.

Sam’s eyes widened. Of course! There were employees who could help them in their pursuit of candy canes. He turned around so sharply that the poor employee flinched, probably underestimating Sam’s height.

“Yes. Me and my brother were searching for candy canes, can you show them to me?” Sam pleaded, a headache worming its way into his brain. 

The employee blinked. “You’re… You are looking for candy canes?”

“Yes. We haven’t been able to find them.” 

The employee lead them away from Aisle 6, which was a relief because if Sam had to stare at a refrigerator one more time, they might have lost their mind right there and then. 

It’s Aisle Eight that the employee took Sam, and the employee — Quackity, was the name on the employee’s name tag — pointed at the bottom of the shelf, and in the dim light Sam could see the package of candy canes. 

“Oh, hey Quackity.” Tommy greeted from behind Sam, making both of them jump. 

“I thought I left you in aisle 4?!” Sam exclaimed, spinning around to stare at Tommy.

“Yeah, you did.” Tommy said, annoyed. 

“Oh, uh, thanks for helping us.” Sam said to Quackity, smiling. 

“I’m just doing my job.” Quackity responded, turning to help another customer.

“Ay, Big Q! Meet me at the school parking lot!” Tommy called, receiving a thumbs up from Quackity.

“I didn’t know you were friends with him.” Sam noted, as Tommy kneeled down to grab some candy canes. 

“Yeah, it was recently.” Tommy said, “Should we get the strawberry or cherry ones?”

“Get one of both,” Sam decided. 

“Now let’s get out of here. I’m sick of this place.” Tommy groaned, dropping the candy canes into the shopping cart.

“Yeah, definitely.” Sam agreed, steering the cart in a direct beeline for the registers.

None of the cash registers were super busy, and Sam only has to pay 17.18 dollars. They were so close, to going home, Sam could almost smell it. 

Outside, the sun is noticeably low on the horizon, slowly starting to completely drop off the horizon. Sam can’t exactly remember when they had gone inside the store, only that it was around early afternoon, reaching its peak.

“At this point Niki’s cookies are already done! We did all that for nothing!” Tommy exclaimed, crossing his arms.

“Hey, at least we learned one new thing,” Sam reassured, resting a hand on his shoulder. “We know where the candy canes are.”

Tommy snorted, a small smile on his face. “Yeah, at least we know.”

“Come on, let’s pack up the car.”

The drive is uneventful, Tommy dozing off in the passenger seat as Sam drove. They decided not to turn on music, not for Tommy but to ease their headache.

Sam pulled up in front of Niki’s house, unbuckling his seatbelt. Tommy opened his eyes lazily. 

“Nah, I got this.” Tommy mumbled groggily, opening his side door. 

“Alright. Don’t take too long!” Sam called from the car. Tommy closed the door, and Sam buckled their seatbelt again, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. 

Tommy came out of Niki’s house a good ten minutes later, holding two trays. Sam leaned over to open the passenger door and waited as Tommy came towards the car.

Tommy climbed in, closing the car door. 

“Niki gave us cookies.” Tommy beamed.

“She did? That was too nice of her.” Sam murmured dully.

Their house is only a few blocks away from Niki’s. Sam got lucky, parking in front of their house, feeling satisfied. 

Sam climbed the steps to their house, which wasn’t yet decorated, like the houses next to them. The neighbours would probably mock them about it, but Sam couldn’t care less. 

They unlocked the door, Tommy behind them with the cookies. It took him twice, the door not budging the first time. 

As soon as they’re inside, Sam collapsed onto the couch with a groan. 

“You’re not going to take your jacket off?” Tommy asked from somewhere above him. Sam groaned in response. 

“Than I might have all of Niki’s cookies.” Tommy murmured thoughtfully.

Sam bolted up. “DO NOT.” They snarled. 

Tommy yelped, holding his hands up. “Fine, Fine! I won’t.” 

Sam shrugged their jacket off, tossing it over at a chair. Tommy turned the TV on, flicking the channels until the Movie Channel popped up. 

“What do you want to watch?” Tommy inquired, resting his head on Sam’s shoulder as he opened up the tray of cookies. 

“Anything.” Sam mumbled, reaching into the tray to grab a cookie. “Wow, these really are good.” 

Eventually they decided on watching a mystery movie, occasionally reaching to grab cookies from the tray. Life was good, Sam decided. This was the only place they needed to be, after all. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beschaulich  
> n. the feeling of living a simple life, especially one that results in a positive, peaceful mental state.


	3. Nodus Tollens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 3: Snow. 
> 
> This took way too long because I rewrote it, I didn't like the feel of it.
> 
> **nodus tollens**  
>  n. _the realization that the plot of your life doesn’t make sense to you anymore—that although you thought you were following the arc of the story, you keep finding yourself immersed in passages you don’t understand, that don’t even seem to belong in the same genre—which requires you to go back and reread the chapters you had originally skimmed to get to the good parts, only to learn that all along you were supposed to choose your own adventure. ___

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i promise that today is double update today. /srs

Snow wasn’t something that happened often in the server. Fundy can’t exactly say why, or even understand why. It just didn’t happen. The last time it did — ice-blue eyes, a figure in the snow. A sword stabbed through his chest, laughing. He never sees the figure again — it was a whole other thing.

Fundy doesn’t remember all of it. No one remembered all of it. All they knew was that they lost someone. 

He can’t tell if it’s a good or a bad thing that they lost someone. It doesn’t keep him up all night wondering who it was, and it doesn’t come back to haunt him in a happier time. It just felt like someone was missing. 

Fundy’s surprised when he woke up, and it was snowing. Perhaps it should have sent something off in him, but it doesn’t. He shakes off the covers, his husband groaning beside him, and looked out.

Everything as far as he could see was snowing. It was light, wispy in the air, coating the ground in a firm layer. Punz was helping Niki with her packages, laughing at something she had said. 

Maybe he should go take a walk. It sounded like a good idea, and who would care about a little chaos along the way? 

  
  


No one cared for a bit of chaos, and Fundy’s hands feel cold, holding the snowball. 

(He remembered crouching behind a snow wall, a teenager, with a white and red winter coat next to him. 

“Ready?” the teen whispered, his ice-blue eyes alight with excitement. 

“Of course.” Fundy said, two snowballs in his hands. “when am I not?”

“Now!” the teen hollered, jumping up and tossing them at the enemy. Fundy followed in suit, his snowball hitting Dream straight in the face.

Dream choked, wiping the snow off his face. Tubbo grinned from beside dream, the person’s snowball hitting him on the chest. 

“Good job.” Dream commented. 

Fundy felt it the same second, the teen did. the snowball hit Fundy point blank in the back, and the teen isn’t as lucky either.

“You forgot to look behind you, though.” Wilbur said, grinning. 

The teen laughed. “You got us good that time, but we’re going to get you next time.”

“Yeah.” Fundy nodded, determined. “We’re not going out that easily.”

“Alright,” Wilbur smiled. “If you say so.”)

Fundy doesn’t remember that. It was different. He had a nagging feeling that he had forgotten something that he  _ needed  _ to remember. To hold dear.

…

Nevermind. 

Fundy continued walking, searching through his memories to figure out what happened. Every time he thought he came close, the answer danced further and further away, no matter how hard he grasped at it.

The wind picked up, and Fundy ducked his head down, the wind whistling past his ears. 

Fundy nearly bumped into someone, and he glanced up to apologize. And froze.

He recognized them. They’re different slightly than he remembered, but he still recognized them. Same blue-grey eyes. Their clothes are the same, but the colours are faded out of them.

The ghost(?) smiled sadly at him. 

“Who are you?” Fundy whispered.

_ Exactly who you think I am _ .

Fundy remembered. There weren’t any good parts.

  
  


“I’m so sorry.” Fundy whispered. It’s not enough, and both of them know it. 

_ Well, you can’t change it. You can tell the others. I’d doubt they even care. _

“They do, though!” Fundy protested. “They do. We searched for months, but we couldn’t…”

_ Couldn’t help me. _ The ghost finished sadly.

Fundy looked down. There’s nothing he can say to make it better. There has been nothing in a long time for him to say. 

The next time he looked up, Tommy’s gone. 

Fundy turned and walked away. Nobody watched him leave. 

Just like always, Fundy forgot. 

He won’t remember it, not until fall approaches and a curious sense of bemusement rises in him as he stares at Tubbo’s bench, as if there were two people, not one. Fundy will remember than, but he will keep it to himself. 

There is no use in digging up fresher pain that was he buried a long time ago. Fundy will think, and that will be that. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the last two sentences are supposed to be in present tense, there are no mistakes there, I just wanted to clear that up.


	4. Ameneurosis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 4: Wreath  
> Grian and Tango just make wreaths.
> 
> **ameneurosis **  
>  _n. the half-forlorn, half-escapist ache of a train whistle calling in the distance at night. ___****
> 
> ****__disclaimer: as far as i am aware, neither of these two people have declared their stance on shipping. if they respond negatively i will take this down. to the people who don't know hermitcraft, don't worry both of these people aren't minors, because shipping minors is weird._ _ ** **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have no idea how wreaths nor romance work. this might not be realistic, sorry about that.   
> on the bright side, at least i did do a double update.

Wreaths. Grian never understood why anyone would want a wreath.

Grian doesn’t even know how to make one. It’s a bit of a surprise when Tango swung by to ask him for help.

“What?” Grian blurted out. 

“Yeah. I need you to, well, help me with makin’ a wreath for the contest. Usually I’d ask Impy or Zed, but they’re too busy, I mean, if you are I can go ‘n get someone else-” Tango mumbled, rubbing his arm. 

A nervous tick that Grian somehow almost always noticed. He doesn’t know why, either. 

“Nah, I have the time. I’ve never made a wreath, though, so you might be out of luck.” Grian chuckled.

Tango grinned. “Don’t worry, all of our wreaths are horrible. Yours will fit in just fine, trust me.”

He grabbed Grian’s hand, dragging him across the street. 

“I’ve got all the materials we need,” Tango explained. 

“Oh,” Grian nodded, noticing that Tango hadn’t let go of his hand. Not that he minded, of course. Or even had a crush on him. That would be ridiculous.

“So, the wreath.” Tango said, oblivious to Grian’s thoughts. “All ours have been green, which is a boring colour. Maybe we should do gold and silver this time. That could interest, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, though, we need something to offset that. It’d be really flashy, right?” Grian asked.

“Oh, yeah, I haven’t really thought about that.” Tango mused, coming to an abrupt stop in front of his house.

“Purple could be a good start.” Grian suggested. “We’d need darker colours, probably ranging on shades of blue.”

Tango nodded, pushing his key into the lock. The door clicked open, and Grian followed him inside.

The hallway lead to a kitchen, with a table cluttered with tinsel, ribbons, and everything else a Christmas decorator could dream of. 

“I think I have some purple ribbon over there,” Tango said, gesturing vaguely towards the end of the table. He picked up the hot glue gun that Grian hadn’t even seen buried underneath tinsel, grabbing gold and silver, entwining them.

Grian shifted through the masses of boxes and ribbon.  _ Where did Tango even keep all of this? _ He wondered, holding up a red feather boa with googly eyes glued onto it.

“Oh, that’s Barry, my worm.” Tango said, looking up from the tinsel to Grian’s end of the table.”

“Oh, uh, okay.” Grian mumbled under his breath, putting Barry down and searching in another box. 

He finally found a purple ribbon, buried under a box full of the ‘worms’ as Tango had called them.

“Found it!” Grian cried, holding the purple ribbon triumphantly. 

“Great! Now.. Do you know how to tie a ribbon into a bow?” Tango asked, setting down the glue gun. The silver and gold wreath was coming along nicely, if you ignored the small random holes in it.

“Uh.. I have no idea.” Grian admitted, glancing downwards before looking back up at Tango.

“Don’t worry, that’s okay!” Tango beamed. “I’ll tie it and you can take over with the wreath.”

“Okay.” Grian said, handing over the ribbon. He switched positions with Tango, examining Tango’s process with it. 

Grian decided that he would fill in the holes, Tango’s process neat, jumping around sometimes.

Filling in the holes was easy. All Grian had to do was avoid the glue that was cooling off and put some glue in. It was soothing, and Grian only had one encounter with hot glue.

Tango finished with the ribbon, and Grian stepped away from the half-completed wreath.

“Ouch,” Tango murmured, looking at Grian’s hand where the small red burn from the hot glue he didn’t see in time. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. It doesn’t really hurt.” Grian assured.

“I could get you some ice.” Tango said.

“No, no, seriously i’m fine!” He insisted, and Tango backed down, though not without a huff. 

They finished the rest of the wreath; Tango fishing out two black ornaments to hang inside the wreath. 

“It looks great,” Grian grinned, clapping his hands together. He winced, remembering the burn.

“I’m going to get you some ice.” Tango said, clearly not looking for a refusal. 

“Fine..” Grian pouted, letting him get the ice. 

Grian felt better with the ice, having it soothe his burn. Tango smiled, gently bumping Grian’s shoulder with his own. Then he paused, dread settling in his stomach.

“Oh, no. Today’s the last day to enter your wreath for the showcasing, isn’t it?” Tango asked.

Grian doesn’t respond, checking the time. “We’ve got thirty minutes. You think we can be there?” 

“No, but we gotta get there.” Tango replied, grabbing his boots and the wreath.

Grian grabbed his coat, hastily putting on his shoes before leaving Tango’s house. 

They sprinted to the town hall, once having to jaywalk across a street. Tango’s pretty sure someone yelled at them. The town hall is just ahead of them, and they slow down to something slightly less than a sprint. 

Grian pushes open the door, and a receptionist greets them; Tango throwing down the wreath onto the desk.

“We want to… sign up… for the wreath contest.” Grian wheezed, half leaning onto the desk to support him.

“Alright. I’m going to have to have you two fill out this form,” The receptionist said calmly, handing the paper over along with a pen. 

“Thanks,” Tango panted, shakily signing the form, passing it to Grian.

“I’ll be keeping the wreath as well. The judging will be on the 15th of December,” The receptionist said, accepting the form.

Tango and Grian stumbled out of the town hall. Grian shook slightly, and they were both giggling breathlessly. 

“That was so… worth it.” Tango murmured, a silly smile on his face.

“Definitely.” Grian agreed, leaning on Tango, who wrapped his arms around Grian.

Was it bad that Tango really wanted to kiss Grian? He wondered, looking down at the sandy blond in his arms. 

Grian turned slightly to look up at Tango. The moment had definitely turned into something else. 

Tango didn’t know who was the one to start it. All he knew was now they were kissing. It was probably one of the best ones he had, but then again, Tango didn’t have many.

It wasn’t bad that he kissed Grian, Tango thought, admiring how the streetlights danced across Grian’s face. If it was like that, then he wouldn’t have it any other way.

**Author's Note:**

> kudos and comments make my day!!!
> 
> u·ni·ver·sal·ism  
> /ˌyo͞onəˈvərsəˌlizəm/  
> noun  
> 1.  
> CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY  
> the belief that all humankind will eventually be saved.  
> 2.  
> loyalty to and concern for others without regard to national or other allegiances.
> 
> i chose it because i thought both meanings were interesting and just kinda... fit? idk.


End file.
